Institutional Racism

The Black-White Gap demonstrates:
• In mathematics, the gap for 17-year-olds was narrowed by 14 points from 1973
to 2008.
• In reading, the gap for 17-year-olds was narrowed by 24 points from 1971 to
2008.
The Hispanic-White Gap demonstrates:
• In mathematics, the gap for 17-year-olds was narrowed by 12 points from 1973
to 2008.
• In reading, the gap for 17-year-olds was narrowed by 15 points from 1975 to
2008.
Furthermore, subgroups showed predominant gains in 4th grade at all achievement
levels. In terms of achieving proficiency, gaps between subgroups in most states have
narrowed across grade levels, yet had widened in 23% of instances. The progress
made in elementary and middle schools was greater than that in high schools, which
demonstrates the importance of early childhood education. Greater gains were seen in
lower-performing subgroups rather than in higher-performing subgroups. Similarly,
greater gains were seen in Latino and African American subgroups than for low-income
and Native American
subgroups.
Reading- ages 9 (light
gray), 13 (dark gray), and
17 (black).
Income
Research that was
conducted shows that
income is a factor that
affects the racial
achievement gap.
Black and Hispanic
students tend to come
from low-income
communities and they
also tend to be behind
white students in
terms of math and
reading scores. Another piece of evidence is that when you compare the gap between
white and minority students with similar family economic backgrounds, the achievement
gap results are different. Katherine Paschall is a researcher who believes that family
income plays more of a factor in the academic achievement gap than race/ethnicity.
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